"The pile of bones
of (all the bodies of) one man
Who has alone one aeon lived
Would make a mountain's height --
So said the mighty seer."
-- ITIVUT'TAKA

To
the dying man at this critical stage, according to Abhidhamma philosophy,
is presented a Kamma, Kamma Nimitta, or Gati Nimitta.

By Kamma is here meant
some good or bad act done during his lifetime or immediately before his
dying moment. It is a good or bad thought. If the dying person had
committed one of the five heinous crimes (Garuka Kamma) such as
parricide etc. or developed the Jhānas (Ecstasies), he would
experience such a Kamma before his death. These are so powerful that they
totally eclipse all other actions and appear very vividly before the
mind's eye. If he had done no such weighty action, he may take for his
object of the dying thought-process a Kamma done immediately before death
(Āsanna Kamma); whichmay be called a "Death Proximate
Kamma."

In the absence of a
"Death-Proximate Kamma" a habitual good or bad act (Ācinna
Kamma)
is presented, such as the healing of the sick in the case of a good
physician, or the teaching of the Dhamma in the case of a pious Bhikkhu,
orstealing in the case of a thief. Failing all these, some casual
trivial good or bad act (Katattā Kamma) becomes the object of the
dying thought-process.

Kamma Nimitta
or "symbol," means a mental reproduction of any
sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or idea which was predominant at the
time of some important activity, good or bad, such as a vision of knives
or dying animals in the case of a butcher, of patients in the case of a
physician, and of the object of worship in the case of a devotee, etc...

By Gati Nimitta,
or "symbol of destiny" is meant some symbol of the place of future birth.
This frequently presents itself to dying persons and stamps its gladness
or gloom upon their features. When these indications of the future birth
occur, if they are bad, they can at times be remedied. This is done by
influencing the thoughts of the dying man. Such premonitory visions
[1] of destiny may be fire,
forests, mountainous regions, a mother's womb, celestial mansions, and the
like.

Taking for the object a
Kamma, or a Kamma symbol, or a symbol of destiny, a thought-process runs
its course even if the death be an instantaneous one.

For the sake of
convenience let us imagine that the dying person is to be reborn in the
human kingdom and that the object is some good Kamma.

His Bhavanga
consciousness is interrupted, vibrates for a thought-moment and passes
away; after which the mind-door consciousness (manodvāravajjana)
arises and passes away. Then comes the psychologically important stage --Javana process -- which here runs only for five thought moments by
reason of its weakness, instead of the normal seven. It lacks all
reproductive power, its main function being the mere regulation of the new
existence (abhinavakarana).

The object here being
desirable, the consciousness he experiences is a moral one. The
Tadālambana-consciousness which has for its function a registering or
identifying for two moments of the object so perceived, may or may not
follow. After this occurs the death-consciousness (cuticitta), the
last thought moment to be experienced in this present life.

There is a
misconception amongst some that the subsequent birth is conditioned by
this last death-consciousness (cuticitta) which in itself has no
special function to perform. What actually conditions rebirth is that
which is experienced during the Javana process.

With the cessation of
the decease-consciousness death actually occurs. Then no material
qualities born of mind and food (cittaja and āhāraja) are
produced. Only a series of material qualities born of heat (utuja)
goes on till the corpse is reduced to dust.
[2]

Simultaneous with the
arising of the rebirth consciousness there spring up the 'body-decad,'
'sex-decad,' and 'base-decad' (Kāya-bhāva-vatthu-dasaka).
[3]

According to Buddhism,
therefore, sex is determined at the moment of conception and is
conditioned by Kamma notby any fortuitous combination of sperm and
ovum-cells.
[4]

The passing away of the
consciousness of the past birth is the occasion for the arising of the new
consciousness in the subsequent birth. However, nothing unchangeable or
permanent is transmitted from the past to the present.

Just as the wheel rests
on the ground only at one point, so, strictly speaking, we live only for
one thought-moment. We are always inthe present, and that present
is ever slipping into the irrevocable past. Each momentary consciousness
of this ever-changing life-process, on passing away, transmits its whole
energy, all the indelibly recorded impressions on it, to its successor.
Every fresh consciousness, therefore, consists of the potentialities of
its predecessors together with something more. At death, the consciousness
perishes, as in truth it perishes every moment, only to give birth to
another in a rebirth. This renewed consciousness inherits all past
experiences. As all impressions are indelibly recorded in the
ever-changing palimpsest-like mind, and all potentialities are transmitted
from life to life, irrespective of temporary disintegration, thus there
may be reminiscence of past births or past incidents. Whereas if memory
depended solely on brain cells, such reminiscence would be impossible.

"This new being
which is the present manifestation of the stream of Kamma-energy is not
the same as, and has no identity with, the previous one in its line -- the
aggregates that make up its composition being different from, having no
identity with, those that make up the being of its predecessor. And yet it
is not an entirely different being since it has the same stream of Kamma-energy, though modified perchance just by having shown itself in
that manifestation, which is now making its presence known in the
sense-perceptible world as the new being.
[5]

Death, according to
Buddhism, is the cessation of the psycho-physical life of any one
individual existence. It is the passing away of vitality (āyu),
i.e., psychic and physical life (jīvitindriya), heat (usma)
and consciousness (vi?āna).

Death is not the
complete annihilation of a being, for though a particular life-span ends,
the force which hitherto actuated it is not destroyed.

Just as an electric
light is the outward visible manifestation of invisible electric energy,
so we are the outward manifestations of invisible Kammic energy. The bulb
may break, and the light may be extinguished, but the current remains and
the light may be reproduced in another bulb. In the same way, the Kammic
force remains undisturbed by the disintegration of the physical body, and
the passing away of the present consciousness leads to the arising of a
fresh one in another birth. But nothing unchangeable or permanent
"passes" from the present to the future.

In the foregoing case,
the thought experienced before death being a moral one, the resultant
rebirth-consciousness takes for its material an appropriate sperm and ovum
cell of human parents. The rebirth-consciousness (patisandhi vi?āna)
then lapses into the Bhavanga state.
[6]

The continuity of the
flux, at death, is unbroken in point of time, and there is no breach in
the stream of consciousness.

Rebirth takes place
immediately, irrespective of the place of birth, just as an
electromagnetic wave, projected into space, is immediately reproduced in a
receiving radio set. Rebirth of the mental flux is also instantaneous and
leaves no room whatever for any intermediate state
[7](antarabhava).
Pure Buddhism does not support the belief that a spirit of the deceased
person takes lodgement in some temporary state until it finds a suitable
place for its "reincarnation."

This question of
instantaneous rebirth is well expressed in the Milinda Pa?a:

The King Milinda
questions:

"Venerable
Nagasena,
if somebody dies here and is reborn in the world of Brahma, and another
dies here and is reborn in Kashmir, which of them would arrive first?

"They would arrive
at the same time. O King.

"In which town were
you born, O King?

"In a village called
Kalasi, Venerable Sir.

"How far is Kalasi
from here, O King?

"About two hundred
miles, Venerable Sir.

"And how far is
Kashmir from here, O King?

"About twelve miles,
Venerable Sir.

"Now think of the
village of Kalasi, O King.

"I have done so,
Venerable Sir.

"And now think of
Kashmir, O King.

"It is done,
Venerable Sir.

"Which of these two,
O King, did you think the more slowly and which the more quickly?

"Both equally
quickly, Venerable Sir.

"Just so, O King, he
who dies here andis reborn in the world of Brahma, is not reborn
later than he who dies here and is reborn in Kashmir."

"Give me one more
simile, Venerable Sir."

"What do you think,
O King? Suppose two birds were flying in the air and they should settle at
the same time, one upon a high and the other upon a low tree, which bird's
shade would first fall upon the earth, and which bird's later?"

"Both shadows would
appear at the same time, not one of them earlier and the other later.
[8]"

The question might
arise: Are the sperm and ovum cells always ready, waiting to take up the
rebirth-thought?

According to Buddhism,
living beings are infinite in number, and so are world systems. Nor is the
impregnated ovum the only route to rebirth. Earth, an almost insignificant
speck in the universe, is not the only habitable plane, and humans are not
the only living beings.
[9] As such it is not
impossible to believe that there will always be an appropriate place to
receive the last thought vibrations. A point is always ready to receive
the falling stone.

[1] For
details with regard to these "premonitory visions of the place of rebirth"
see Dr. W. T. Evans-Wents, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 183.

[2]
According to Buddhism material qualities are produced in four ways.

[4] Compare "The sex of the individual is determined at conception by the
chromosome make-up of the gametes. Through this, the embryo is
endowed with a potentiality of developing towards one sex" Frank
Alexander, Psychosomatic Medicine p. 219.

[7] According to Tibetan works, writes Dr.
Evans-Wents, there is an
intermediate state where beings remain for one, two, three, five, six or
seven weeks, until the forty-ninth day. This view is contrary to the
teachings of Buddhism. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, pp.XLII -
XLIII, 58, 160-165